Our August Recording of the Month is the fifth and final instalment of the Danish String Quartet’s stimulating Prism project (ECM 4858469). Starting with Prism I, recorded in 2016, each volume has linked a Bach fugue with one of Beethoven’s five late quartets, which, in turn, has pointed towards an important quartet by a later composer. It’s a typically thoughtful conceit from players whose bonds of friendship go back to school music camps.

Prism V opens and closes with Bach, their tone thinned out to resemble a viol consort. The performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16 in F that follows couldn’t be bettered. The group’s palpable sense of camaraderie is perfectly suited to the amiable Op. 135. Tone here is full-bodied yet flexible with a cheerful lightness at the top and rustic warmth at the bottom.

Written in his lush early style, Webern’s 1905 String Quartet is not at all hard to approach and the Danes’ reading is full of imaginative touches. The disc concludes with the unfinished Contrapunctus 14 from The Art of the Fugue. Listening to these works back-to-back, you can hear both Beethoven and Webern in Bach’s contrapuntal...